Posts Tagged ‘Atom’

We’re getting down to the end of the DFC previews. Today is the last day of previews for Checkmate, the last team featured in the set. Like Seventh Soldier said in his excellent team write-up Checkmate was easily the most hotly debated team in the set. Originally, we hadn’t planned to refeature Checkmate. But as the Final Crisis story unfolded, it became clear that next to Darkseid’s Elite, Checkmate was the most important team in the story.

Another problem was that Checkmate was already a force to be reckoned with in Vs. The original version of the team in the Infinite Crisis set remains one of the most playable teams in the game. Certainly one of the best DC teams left out there. So we were faced with the challenge of making a team that felt like Checkmate without making Checkmate crazy busted.

The answer was found in the story itself. In Infinite Crisis, Checkmate was quitely pulling all the strings. They were calling the shots and the DCR version of the team reflected that. In Final Crisis, Checkmate was desperate. They were on the run as safehouse after safehouse fell to Darkseid.

As a result, the new version of Checkmate has to makes some risky plays. Not only that, but they will loose one headquarters after another. Ryan Choi <> The Atom plays into both of those themes. Going down a resource (usually a location for Checkmate) is a risky proposition. Koing a resource too early or too often can easily cost you the game.

But the payoff – the card of your choice in your hand when you need it – could win you the game. It’s just of matter of knowing when the time is right to pull the trigger so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

Other affiliations (Brotherhood, JLI) are looking at Ryan Choi and drooling. His restriction makes him a little less splashable. But as long as you can guarantee a team-up, Ryan will be a welcome addition to any team that likes to KO its own resources.

So, that’s it for me. Thanks to the guys for letting me play along when I didn’t do much of the heavy lifting this time around. And thanks to everyone for the overwhelmingly positive response to the set so far. Believe me when I say, you ain’t seen nothing yet!